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FOOTPRINTS 



Jiles ^taitjtrisl. 



BY THE REV. B. F. DeCOSTA. 





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Re-printed from the Church Monthly 
for private distribution. 

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FOR nearly two centuries and a half the coast 
of Cape Cod has been celebrated in the an- 
nals of shipwreck and disaster . This point of land , 
according to the imaginative geographer, con- 
stitutes the right arm of Massachusetts; and 
thus our ancient Commonwealth comes to be re- 
sponsible for every barbarous salutation extend- 
ed to the Atlantic voyager approaching these 
shores. The Cape pushes its treacherous sands 
out into the very heart of ocean navigation. It 
spreads the dangerous flats across the path of 
the tall and stately ship, idling on her way from 
India, and weaves its toils for the shallop of the 
laborious fisherman. Whoever has once nar- 
rowly escaped hydriotaphia on the shoals of 
Georges, where wind and tide in their furious 
collision plough up the very floor of the 
sea, is perhaps prepared to appreciate the dan- 



4 Footprints of 

gers that lurk here. 'T is a vast syrtis, lavish 
in all grim hospitalities ; yet in the hand of this 
rude fellowship is grasped a goodly harbor, 
open to all the world, — a broad blue sheet of 
water, belted by the sinuous sands, and large 
enough for a thousand sail. Into this harbor 
came the storm-tossed Mayflower, on the eleventh 
day of November, sixteen hundred and twenty. 
Here the weary Pilgrims first set foot on the shore 
of New England, — here was born the first child 
of English parentage, ^ — and here was signed the 
memorable compact which led to the final suc- 
cess of Plymouth Colony. 

The emigrants, however, as is well known, 
were by no means the first visitors to the shores 
of Massachusetts. All intelligent antiquarians 
are now ready to admit that the Icelandic navi- 
gators touched here at different times during the 
tenth and eleventh centuries, and that here is to 
be found the " Vinland " of the Sagas. ^ Six 
centuries later, in the year 1602^the cliffs of 
the Cape first rose to the view of Gosnold. The 
following year Martin Pring sailed along the 
coast in search of sassafras ; and in 1619 the ro- 
mantic Founder of Virginia came out from Eng- 
land with two ships to secure a cargo of fish and 
furs. But at the time when the Brownists ar- 
rived in Provincetown harbor the ground was 
still ^unoccupied by actual settlers, and the vast 
(1) See Appendix. 



Miles Standish. 5 

resources of the country remained unimproved, 
the wood-crowned shores exhibiting the same 
wild luxuriance displayed in the earlier times of 
Leif and Eric the Red. 

Immediately on their arrival, being admon- 
ished by the many indications of a rapidly ap- 
proaching winter, the emigrants lost no time in 
fitting out a shallop in which to coast the shore 
in search of a suitable spot for a permanent set- 
tlement. In the meanwhile, the colonists 
being impatient to learn something at once 
of the character of this new country, a band of 
sixteen men was fitted out, with directions to 
proceed southward on a two days' tour of obser- 
vation, under the leadership of the renowned 
Captain Miles Standish, a man, who though the 
bravest soldier and the best linguist in the colo- 
ny, could not find his tongue in the presence of 
a fair lady. Here let us part with the May- 
flower and the wayworn company who still re- 
main on board, without staying to pass a need- 
less judgment upon the principles and policy of 
the Puritan, but leaving the panegyrist to laud 
bis virtues, and the historic vulture to batten on 
his vice. In the meantime let us trace the 
course of this rough soldier in his expedition 
among the sand-hills. The stern old sectarian 
will be companionable enough to-day, and we 
shall hear no jaundiced complaints of his Mother 



6 Footprints of 

the Church. New scenes, fresh and unlooked- 
for experience, together with the exhilarating 
tang of the pure autumnal air, will banish the 
recollections of the past and open the way to a 
fresh chapter of life. 

The account of this expedition is to be found 
in what is popularly known as " Mourt's Kela- 
tion," written, at least that portion which de- 
C- scribes this Episode, by Bradford, who was one 
of the party. The account is so minute and cir- 
cumstantial, that even at this late day we may 
go, book in hand, as Freeman has done, and 
identify every locality. The tract of country 
which they traversed is embraced within the 
present limits of the towns of Provincetown and 
Truro. 

But before we commence the account of the 
expedition let us glance at the general condition 
of the country. The accounts given at the dif- 
ferent times by various writers possess a very es- 
sential agreement. The old Icelandic Saga is 
as correct as the Chronicles of Plymouth Colo- 
ny. The Saga of Thorwald Ericsson ^ says of 
the coast of Yinland, that it is a country "beauti- 
ful and well-wooded, the distance small between 
the forest and sea, and the strand full of white 
sand." Bradford, whose account is to be our 
guide, writes, " The appearance of it much com- 
forted us, especially seeing so goodly a land, 



Miles Standish. 7 

and wooded to the brink of the sea." The har- 
bor was " compassed about to the very sea with 
oaks, pines, juniper,^ sassafras, and other sweet 
wood." Specimens of those may still be found, 
though generally in a dwarfed and decayed con- 
dition. The tongue of land forming the south- 
ern breakwater of the harbor was at that time 
covered with a dense growth of timber, as is ap- 
parent, not only from its name, — Woodend,-^ 
but from the fact that a few years ago the stumps 
of large trees were to be seen on the beach, 
which is naw studded with the ribs of stranded 
ships. The soil they found " much like the 
downs of Holland." Here also the Pilgrims 
found an abundance of game of all descriptions, 
and every day "we saw whales playing near 
us." Their eager search was rewarded by 
** great mussels, and very fat and full of sea- 
pearls."* 

Such, in brief, were the resources and ap- 
pearance of this new country into which these 
colonists had come. The productions of the sea 
still remain unchanged, except so far as relates 
to abundance ; but the land has undergone a 
complete transformation. The woodman's axe 
early made great havoc among the forest-trees, 
and in 1790 it was found necessary to prohibit 
further ravages by an express statute. The 
remedy, however, came too late, and the greater 



8 Footprints of 

portion of the remaining woods were soon over- 
whelmed by the drifting sand, leaving the ex- 
posed hills in turn to suffer severe atrophy. 
The waves now roll where formerly the deer 
browsed and the Indian stealthily pursued the 
chase. The band of explorers selected were 
sixteen in number, every man having "his 
musket, sword, and corselet." To these were 
" adjoined for counsel and advice," William 
Bradford, Stephen Hopkins, and Edward Tilley. 
It was on Wednesday, the fifteenth of Novem- 
ber that they were set ashore (probably near the 
western extremity of the harbor), where they 
formed in single file, with their doughty little 
Captain at the head. A strange-looking band, 
no doubt, cased as they were in their antique 
armor and shouldering their cumbersome match- 
locks. The expedition was at once put in mo- 
tion, when they marched along the shore for a 
mile, which brought them to a point near the 
centre of the present town of Provincetown. 
Here " they espied five or six people with a dog 
coming towards them, who were savages ; who, 
when they saw them, ran into the wood and 
whistled the dog after them." Standish at once 
followed, but could not overtake them, though 
according to the journal, they travelled ten 
miles. "^ The day it appears was soon spent, and 
they were " constrained to take up their lodg- 



Miles Standish. 9 

ings. So they set forth three sentinels ; and of 
the rest, some kindled a fire and others fetched 
wood, and there held our rendezvous that night." 
Their camp was probably formed near the base 
of Mount Ararat./ But at the mention of this 
name the reader must indulge in no unseason- 
able ideas of towerinor height. This is not the 
eminence so celebrated in history, but a small 
conical hill enjoying an elevation of a hundred 
feet. It is not one of the everlasting hills, nor 
was it formed when the mountains were brought 
forth. It was built by the ocean breeze from 
the shifting sands, together with Gilboa, its 
brother. Under their sheltering shade. Miles 
Standish passed the night in the open air 
around the camp-fire fed by the cedar and the 
pine. 

At that time the Indians were reduced in 
strength and widely scattered. Previous to the 
arrival of the colonists, as is well known, some 
terrible disease had swept away vast numbers 
of the aborigines, leaving the soil in some 
instances with no occupants save the unburied 
dead. Thomas Morton, of " Mare-Mount," 
author of the "New English Canaan," writes 
that " the bones and skulls upon the several 
places of their habitation made such a spectacle 
after my coming into those partes, that as I 
travailed in that forest, nere the Massachusets, 



10 Footprints of 

it seemed to mee a newfound Golgotha." The 
weakness of the natives may therefore account 
for the fact that the slumbers of the explorers 
were undisturbed by the savage war-whoop. 
When morning dawned, the party once more 
took up the march, and followed the trail of the 
retreating Indians across the neck of land which 
connects the two townships. This neck is from 
three to four miles in length and of great eleva- 
tion, being composed of pure white sand. Sev- 
enty years ago it was studded with stumps of 
trees which had been choked by the upward 
march of the drift, but every vestige of these 
long since disappeared. This elongated hill 
forms one of the most impressive objects in 
nature. Viewed at early dawn, when the fog 
from the Atlantic, purpling in the rising sun, 
bathes the vast sand-drift in a soft amethystine 
light, the sight is one capable of exciting the 
deepest admiration. It impressed even the 
wandering Northman, accustomed as he was to 
all the wild and imposing magnificence of his 
native isle ; and in the old Saga of Vinland he 
calls the shore the " Wonder-strand." Such 
must this display ever appear to all impressible 
minds, whether viewed in the purpling light of 
morning, in the bright effulgence of the sun's 
meridian splendor, or at evening when the naked 
waste gloams fitfully in the weird, super- 



Miles Standish. II 

natural twilight. Then the solitary and belated 
tourist, as the solemn voice of the surf salutes 
his ear, will often start involuntarily ; and as 
the dim forms darkle around him, the air seems 
to grow thick and tangible, and he becomes half 
conscious of the presence of some great all- 
pervading spirit. 

It is, however, the fortune of few to witness 
these peculiar moods of nature among the sand- 
hills. Still those who wait and watch will al- 
ways be rewarded. The prospect here, of course, 
must affect individuals variously. A quaint old 
writer says : "Many pilgrims, going barefoot, 
for devotion' sake, from Joppa to Jerusalem 
upon the hot sands, often run mad, oi else are 
quite overwhelmed with sand, profundis arenis, 
as in many parts of Africk." Such a burial is 
doubtless very possible ; but must not those 
pedestrians have gone mad long before they 
reached Joppa ? But our Pilgrims are not 
mad; at least not now. They have forgotten 
the old grievance, and for the nonce leave the 
husks of religion to theologic swine ; and now 
Elder Bradford marches side by side with Miles 
Standish, conversing pleasantly of wood-craft, 
eyeing at times the sea-fowl that darken the air 
in their flight, and anon pausing to train his 
snaphance upon the retreating form of some 
noble buck. The route selected probably lay 



12 Footprints of 

on the south side of this neck of land and par- 
allel with the salt marsh which penetrates the 
Cape for a distance of three miles, where are 
still to be seen the remains of those dense, 
tangled, and almost impassable coppices which 
Bradford says " tore our very armor in pieces." 
But the prospect nevertheless appeared promis- 
ing ; and as they trampled down the underwood, 
the bruised sassafras, quoted then at three shil- 
lings a pound, perfumed the air with its deli- 
cious aroma. Sweet incense indeed in the 
trained nostrils of the thrifty Puritan Elder. 
But though well-pleased with the constantly 
widening view, they soon began to feel the need 
of refreshment ; for Bradford says, " we brought 
neither beer nor water with us, and our victuals 
was only biscuit and Holland cheese, and a 
little bottle of aqua vitce, so we were sore 
athirst." They pressed on, however, and reach- 
ed the head of the creek where the life-boat "^ is 
now housed but ready tor be launched at a 
moment's warning, and turning southward, still 
among the woo^is, they came about ten o'clock 
to a valley full of brush and long grass, with 
deer. This valley is somewhat memorable from 
the fact that here the Pilgrims found the first 
spring of water, " of which," in the language 
of the journal, " we were heartily glad, and sat 
us down and drunk our first New England 



Miles Standish. 13 

water, with as much delight as we ever drunk 
in our lives." This place is now known as 
East Harbor, a deserted village which the black- 
birds hold in fee simple, and where in a swamp 
they sing among the alders. From this point 
they could discern the Mayflower, modeled^ke LkJ^^ 
a Chinese junk, lying at anchor in the distant 
harbor, and here they built a fire to signal their 
position to the company on board. 

Passing on from thence due south, they soon 
came to another valley, where was found "a 
fine pond of fresh water, where grew also many 
small vines, and fowl and deer haunted there." 
This is the second time the vine is alluded to. 
Mr. Laing, the translator of the *' Heimskrin- 
gla," thinks the Northmen did not come so far 
south as the Cape, because the productions of 
this part of the country, particularly the vine, 
do not agree with those of Vinland.^ 

Speaking of Eastern Massachusetts, he asks : 
" Do vines, or wheat, or corn of any kind grow 
spontaneously in any part of these countries? "^ 
adding, ' * this is a question by no means satis- 
factorily ascertained." A very trifling amount 
of knowledge would have prevented this mis- 
take. As for the vines, the boys hereabouts 
who 

" Know each wildwood smell, 
The bayberry and the fern/' 

;^ /L. Jur. Jiy>^aL f^U-C-^ 



/ 



14 Footprints of 

could tell him where they grow ; while the 
Sagas by no means furnish the sole testimony 
in regard to self-sown grain. Sabine Baring- 
Grould speaks in his book of Icelandic travel of 
wild corn growing in that island on the sand- 
flats, which is used by the inhabitants for food. 
The valley where Standish found the vines and 
the deer is now called Pond Village, one of the 
most pleasant villages in Truro. Turning 
thence down the north side of the pond, which 
in the summer is filled with a luxuriant growth 
of green flag, they travelled along the beach 
on the inner side of the bay ; but as some of 
the men *' were tired and lagged behind," they 
soon struck into the land again through an 
opening in the bank which is still pointed out, 
one mile south of Pond Village. Continuing 
the march over a somewhat rolling tract of 
country, they came to a heap of sand, and, dig- 
ging into it, they discovered " a fine new basket 
full of very fair corn, with some six-and-thirty 
goodly years of corn, some yellow and some 
red, and others mixed with blue, which was a 
very goodly sight." The basket was of curious 
workmanship ; and near by they discovered a 
palisade which had been constructed by some 
Englishmen visiting the coast. Here the ad- 
vance terminated, as the time allotted to the 
expedition was brief. They had now reached a 



Miles Standish. 15 

spot known to the present inhabitants as ** Hop- 
kins' Cliff," near the mouth of the "Little 
Pamet " river, at Truro Centre. Of this there 
can be no doubt whatever, as whoever stands 
upon that cliff with the journal before him will 
see that Bradford has given an exact photograph 
of the locality. From this point may be seen 
Pamet Harbor, into which the Great Pamet 
empties, along whose sandy banks and sedge- 
grown shores may be found a scattered popula- 
tion, consisting chiefly of fishermen, whose 
quaint and picturesque dwellings seem an inte- 
gral part of the sombre but impressive land- 
scape. This spot formed quite an extensive 
Indian village ; and the thievish south-wind 
that lugs away the fragrant odors of the bay- 
berry and eglantine frequently reveals the re- 
mains of Indian graves, in which the crumbled 
skeletons appear ranged side by side. And 
dost thou deem it kind, old ^olus, thus to lay 
bare the bones of a chief? Ah, thou wilt blow 
and crack thy cheeks to give them decent sep- 
ulture again, presently? y- 

From this point Standish and his men com- 
menced their return, loaded with the spoils, as 
the twelve spies of Israel returned from Canaan 
bearing the rich fruits of Eschol. A forced 
march brought them back by evening to the 
** fresb-water pond," where they formed a camp, 



^^^K,^r<^ ^itx^rryi^ ' ^^ ^ 



16 Footprints of 

established a guard, and passed a rainy night. 
The returning light found them once more on 
their way through the woods, but soon they un- 
fortunately lost the trail. The conclusion may 
be given in their own words : — 

" As we wandered, we came to a tree where a young 
sprit was bowed down over a bow, and some acorns 
strewed underneath. Stephen Hopkins said it had 
been to catch some deer. So as we were loolving at 
it, William Bradford being in the rear, when he came 
also upon it, and as he went about it gave a sudden 
jerk up, and he was immediately caught by the leg. 
It was a very pretty device^ made with a rope of their 
own making. In the end we got out of the wood, 
and were fallen about a mile too high above the 
creek ;9 where we saw three buck, but we would rath- 
er have had one of them. So we marched some while 
on the sands, and other while in the water up to the 
knees; till at length we came near the ship, and then 
we shot off our pieces and the long-boat came to fetch 
us. Master Jones and Master Carver being on the 
shore, with many of our people, came to meet us. 
And so we came both weary and welcome home." 

Thus the expedition ended with success, and 
a good report was brought concerning the land, 
encouraging the Pilgrims to make larger efforts 
to discover a suitable spot for the establishment 
of their colony. It was therefore not without 
an important bearing upon all that followed, and 
formed a link in the chain of providences which 
led to the permanent occupation of the country. 
Few persons ever consider how largely Plymouth 



Miles Standish. IT 

Rock is indebted to the sands of Cape Cod. It 
was here that the Pilgrims received their first 
favorable impressions of the Western world. It 
was here, in the harbor of Provincetown, that 
they found such seasonable relief from the storm 
which threatened their destruction. Says one 
of New England's noblest sons : ""When I con- 
sider the condition of the Mayflower, utterly 
incapable as she was of living through another 
gale, I dare not call it a mere piece of good for- 
tune, that the general north and south wall of 
the shore of New England should be broken 
by this extraordinary projection of the Cape, 
running out into the ocean a hundred miles, 
as if on purpose to receive and encircle this 
precious vessel." 

And whoever is interested in these episodes 
of colonial history, whoever is fond of walking 
as it were by the side of historic personages and 
sharing their very thoughts and actions, and is 
very desirous at the same time of studying na- 
ture in all her various moods, can hardly spend 
a short vacation better than by a ramble, book in 
hand, over the unique region traversed by Cap- 
tain Miles Standish and his party of observation. 
But if one feels that this is indulging in candle- 
light at noon-day, he may close the little dingy 
volume, born of the London press, in Pater- 
Noster Row, more than two hundred years ago, 



18 Footprints of 

and read only the great outspread volume of 
Nature, which is new every morning and fresh 
every evening. When you step upon these 
shores, you leave behind all the artificial customs 
and sickening conventionalities of society, and 
become conscious that you are moving in a new 
and healthier atmosphere. Here you find noth- 
ing hackneyed or common. The land and sea 
are equally at command, while all seasons unite 
in giving alms of their respective pleasures. 
Every view here is beautiful. Indeed, there 
are no asymptotes in nature : the wildest ex- 
tremes of mountain and moorland, rugged 
rock and sandy holm, — all these, so opposite to 
the common sight, trend away in their course 
until they meet and mingle in the Line of 
Beauty. There is something that is wonder- 
fully pleasing even in common objects here by 
the sea-side. The low bank waving with pale 
green beach-grass ; the overhanging cliff ; the 
drift wood-pile garnered in a cove ; the whale's 
rib planted for a landmark, and the hulk of last 
winter's wreck half buried in the sand, finding 
as they do their appropriate adjuncts, form so 
many simple yet effective pictures, admirably 
adapted to please the artist's eye. 

Nevertheless certain seasons and localities are 
calculated above others to afford pleasure. In 
the spring-time the brown and sombre earth 



Miles Standish. 19 

breaks out here and there in bright green 
spots, and the beach-grass and the oaks revive 
and emulate the verdure of the evergreen pine. 
Then comes the season to walk in the woods. 
But go there always on a sunny day, after the 
land-tortoise has commenced his summer rambles, 
and revel in the sweet spicery and listen to the 
songs of the birds. Here you will find the 
Mayflower (^EjngcEa repens) growing in the 
shade, and half-buried in last autumn's leaves ; 
a flower which many suppose to be peculiar to 
Plymouth woods, as if it first sprang up when 
the foot of the colonist touched the strand. 
Autumn, however, is perhaps best suited to the 
genius of these shores. Then the natural char- 
acter of the scenery becomes intensified, and the 
general brownness of the landscape kindles to a 
golden flame, in which every object is immersed 
in a warm, rich light. The autumnal day we 
must give to the moorlands, which occupy no 
inconsiderable tract of country here, beginning 
near the head of land which juts out into East 
Harbor, and sweeping southward several miles 
in the form of a somewhat regular plain, until 
the level ground gradually breaks up and loses 
itself among the rolling hills known to geolo- 
gists as moraines}^ 

Loiter here on a hazy afternoon, and observe 
the magic of light as it plays on the russet 



20 Footprints of 

heath. How delicious the crisp of the moss to 
our metropolitau feet ! The haycocks, the sa- 
line spoils of the meadow, gleam like hives of 
gold. How the whortleberry flames ! See that 
blazing bramble-bush, all on fire from the slant- 
ing rays of the declining sun, which now looks 

"With the eye of love through golden vapors around 
him," 

and transfigures every object. Here the true 
recluse may wunder and meditate, and learn why 
Jesus went out into a " desert-place." The ef- 
fect is soothing in an eminent degree, and sug- 
gestive of the calm experienced by Frithiof 
when he came repentant, to Balder's sacred 
fane : — 

"Yes, 't was as if he felt the heart of nature beat 
Responsive to his own; as if, deep-mov'd he'd press 
In brotherly embrace Heimskringla's Orb, and Peace 
Straight make with all the world." 

On such days occurs the mirage, than which 
nothing is more frequent or beautiful. The 
Cape here is extremely narrow, and hemmed in 
by two atmospheres, varying greatly in clear- 
ness and density. Hence the variable tempera- 
ture will often play the most extravagant pranks 
with laws of light, and sometimes leads the 
stranger almost to doubt his own identity. 
Hitchcock says that during his geological tour 
along the Cape he witnessed a must remarkable 
illusion near Orleans. He tells us that as he 



Miles Standish. 21 

travelled over the level road he seemed to be 
ascending a hill, and could not persuade himself 
of the contrary without turning and walking in 
the opposite direction, wben even then the illu- 
sion was not dissipated. Often, on such a day 
as I have described, when earth and sky are 
bathed in a hazy, dreamy, undulating ligbt, the 
glowing heath will rise all around you, and 
every object assume the strangest phase. Sea- 
ward and landward the eflfect is the same. On 
the ocean phantom ships are seen crowding on 
sail for phantom ports ; while in the distant bay 
are distorted spectral shapes that appear suf- 
ficiently grotesque for the wraith of the May- 
flower, and we almost expect to see Miles Stand- 
ish and his mail-clad retinue issue from out the 
neighboring woods. Frequently at such times 
the earth seems to be nothing but an island, 
floating in a vast sea of shining haze, — an illu- 
sion which only a change of the wind can effec- 
tually dispel.^^ 

Near this heath are the Cliffs of Highland 
Light, a delightful situation from whence to 
view both land and sea. Standing upon the 
precipitous cliffs, which rose to Grosnold's view 
a " mighty headland," and possibly the identi- 
cal " Wonder-strand " of the old Saga, we 
peer far out over the blue Atlantic. This is the 
Land's End of Massachusetts ; and the waves 



22 Footprints, S^c, 

roll, unbroken by reef or skerry, between the 
beach down at our feet and the Land's End of 
Cornwall. It is calm to-day, and the waves, 
forgetful of their wonted mood, rise and fall 
with a musical cadence, and, breaking, sink 
softly down upon the sandy shore. And I 
would. Old England, that the words which reach 
us from thy distant strand, in this our day of 
trial, fell soothingly iiiem our hearts like the 
'*^^'«'"*^ gentle lapse of the summer sea. 

This abrupt cliflf overhanging the shore is 
deeply suggestive, and here we leave the little 
band 'of Pilgrims to join in imagination that 
great company yet to assemble at the Land's 
End of Time. In the language of the Dean 
Alvord — 

"And so one day, 
Will the Lord's flock, close on time's limit stand 
On the last headland of the travelled world, 
And watch, like sun's streak on the ocean waste, 
His advent drawing nigh. 

"Thus shall the Church 
Her Land's End reach : and thus must you and me 
Look out upon the glorious realms of hope, 
And find the last of Earth,— the first of God." 






APPENDIX. 



1 The first child born hefff-of foreign parentage was 
Snorre, son of Gudrid, the wife of Thorfin, one of 
the Icelandic navigators. This child attained to man- 
hood; and his grandson, Thorlak, was advanced to 
the Episcopate, and compiled a code of ecclesiastical 
laws for the Church in Iceland. The learned Icelander, 
Prof. Finn Magnusson and Thorwaldsonthe sculptor, 
were among the descendants of Snorre. No person 
who is aware of the amount of attention paid to gen- 
ealogy by the Icelanders will entertain a doubt on the 
subject. This child was born, it is thought, near 
Mount Hope. 

2 Gurnet Point, near Plymouth, is probably the 
"Krossaness" of the Icelandic history. Thorwald 
Ericsson, dying, said: There shall ye bury me, and 
plant a cross at my head, and also at my feet, and 
call the place Krossaness in all coming time." It is 
equally certain that "Kialarness,"— Keel-Cape, — where 
they fitted a new keel to their vessel and setup the old 
one as a landmark, is identical with Cape Cod. 

3 This Saga was committed to manuscript prior to 
the year 1395, and is unquestionably a genuine histori- 
cal document. Columbus visited Iceland in the year 
1477, and possibly found there the confirmation of his 
theory of a Western World. 

4 Young, m his notes to Chronicles of the Pilgrims, 
says that what was taken for juniper was "the red ce- 
dar," and states there is "no juniper.^' Is he not in 
error ?TMIe probably never spent a day picking juni- 
per berries among the sand hills. If he had, he would 
never had forgotten the circumstance. Evelyn, in 
his Sylva Sylvarum, says, "I wonder Virgil should 
condemn its shade— ^'j^/nperi gravis umbra — I suspect 
him misreported." So do I. J^ 



-f 1>i^i4:^Uj ^^ . 



24 APPENDIX. 

5 All the early colonists in America were dazzled by 
the prospect of finding gold, pearls, and precious 
stones. Linnaius professed to understand the art of 
producing natural pearls, — probably by perforating 
the shell of the mussel and introducing a grain of 
sand. 

6 This estimate is too large, as by the next morning 
at ten o'clock they had not travelled more than that 
distance. 

7 Placed here to rescue shipwrecked sailors. The 
Humane Society many years ago built huts at inter- 
vals on the beach, where such unfortunates may find 
shelter. 

8 It has also been objected that the Sagas state that 
"there is no winter in Vinland, and no cold and no 
frost, as in Iceland and Greenland," This was un- 
doubtly said to encourage emigration. Thomas Mor- 
ton [N. E. Canaan] does not hesitate to say, with the 
same end in view, that in New England the people 
have "no coughs and colds." What account might 
not Gosnold have honestly given of the climate if he 
had found ice here in July, as did one writing 
to the Boston Post-Boy, of July 16, 1741 : 

"Province-town, July 14th. On the 4th, of this 
month one of this town discovered a considerable 
quantity of ice on the north side of a Swamp in this 
place, who bi'oke off a piece and carried it several 
miles undissolved to the tavern-keeper, who for his 
pains treated him to a bowl of punch for his pains." 

9 East Harbor creek, called "Head of the Meadow," 
where the life-boat is housed on the beach. 

10 These moraines, which so impress the beholder, 
and which are so suggestive of a former deluge, are 
considered by Hitchcock and Robinson as identical 
with the isolated moraines around Jericho. 

11 A well known Episcopal clergvman of Boston, 
formerly minister of the old Congrcg tional Society 
in Plymouth, informs the writer that he has seen the 
houses situated on the Cape, twenty miles distant from 
that place, during the mirage, the houses in question 
appearing to be only a short distance from the shore. 
In the ordinary state of the atmosphere this would 
be impossible. 






FOOTPRINTS 



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BY THE REV. B. F. DeCOSTA. 




€ ^arlesto fa it : 
Re-pkinted from the C'HrKCH Monthly 

POR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 

1864, . 



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